OAKLAND / Olympian packs a lot of punch as role model / Andre Ward inspires others to take up boxing

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 26, 2004

The 16-year-old saw Oakland boxer Andre Ward defeat Italy's Clemente Russo in a televised Olympic bout last week and took up boxing immediately.

"I saw Andre and decided boxing is really cool," said McClure, a tight end on Oakland Tech's football team at this time last year. "I decided I want to box, too."

And so it was that McClure found himself Wednesday in the same ring where his new hero learned to box -- King's Gym in East Oakland.

Even if Ward, 20, brings home "only" a bronze medal after Friday's semifinal fight, he has given the gym where he has trained for 15 years a big boost and fueled the dreams of all who train there.

Located in a nondescript building near the Fruitvale BART Station, King's feels about a million miles away from the gyms that cater to the Lycra-clad masses. Its walls are covered with posters of fighters both famous and obscure, and it smells like a place where guys fight -- minus the beer.

It's a serious boxing temple, one of the last of its kind in Northern California. It's the kind of place where young people from Oakland's toughest neighborhoods learn to hit each other -- in sportsmanlike circumstances. It's also a place where men from their 20s to their 40s gather to go a few rounds in the ring.

Boxers are greeted at the door by a bull;etin board with newspaper clippings showing Ward's Olympic progress.
We visit King's Gym in East Oakland, where Olympic boxer Andre Ward got into boxing. We talk to bosers at the gym on the eve of Ward's Olympic medal-round bout. Photo by Kim Komenich in Oakland less

Boxers are greeted at the door by a bull;etin board with newspaper clippings showing Ward's Olympic progress.
We visit King's Gym in East Oakland, where Olympic boxer Andre Ward got into boxing. We talk to ... more

Photo: Kim Komenich

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Kevin Galindo, 12, left, is on the receiving end of a punch by Miguel Magana, 11, right. (MIGUEL QUOTED)
We visit King's Gym in East Oakland, where Olympic boxer Andre Ward got into boxing. We talk to bosers at the gym on the eve of Ward's Olympic medal-round bout. Photo by Kim Komenich in Oakland less

Kevin Galindo, 12, left, is on the receiving end of a punch by Miguel Magana, 11, right. (MIGUEL QUOTED)
We visit King's Gym in East Oakland, where Olympic boxer Andre Ward got into boxing. We talk to bosers ... more

Photo: Kim Komenich

Image 3 of 3

OAKLAND / Olympian packs a lot of punch as role model / Andre Ward inspires others to take up boxing

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And when they grow tired, they lean on the ropes and dream.

"We teach boxing, we teach life, and we teach character," said owner Charles King. "We can teach you how to win and how to lose and how to live.

"But," he added with a chuckle, "you have to be able to take a punch."

King has helped tutor Ward since the light-heavyweight was "knee high to a duck" at age 7, and he will be among the 250 or so boxers at the gym who will cheer for Ward on Friday when he competes in a semifinal bout. To most of the folks at King's Gym, Ward is not a larger-than-life hero, but family. He's that incredibly nice kid with incredibly quick hands and an incredibly huge heart.

"I think Dre is going to come home with gold," said his former sparring partner, Michael Margado, 32, of Oakland. "That's going to be great for the King's Gym, great for the sport and great for Oakland."

Ward, who now is guaranteed at least a bronze medal, is among two American boxers remaining in competition. On Tuesday, Ward defeated two-time Russian world champion Evgeny Makarenko. On Wednesday, middleweight Andre Dirrell defeated Cuba's tough Yordani Despaigne.

A gold medal by Ward, a religious father of two small kids, would most likely launch him on a lucrative career as a professional boxer. But King and Margado said the publicity Ward had already generated for the gym had been a huge boost as more kids like Edward McClure come walking through the door.

"Charles might have to get a bigger place," Margado said.

King added, "Every time Andre is on the news, we get more people showing up here wanting to learn how to box."

Robert Salinas, a trainer and former boxer at King's, points out that every kid boxing at King's Gym is a kid who isn't on the street getting into trouble.

"If more kids worked it out in the ring, you'd see fewer homicides in this town," Salinas said. "It's one of those things that sounds obvious. But here, look around, we have lots of proof."